JOHN Brain roared out a Worcester war-cry as they climbed off the bottom of the Premiership.

The Sixways director of rugby was delighted with his side's 16-6 victory over London Irish, a result which left Harlequins bottom of the pile and heaped pressure on Leeds and Northampton.

"It keeps the pressure on teams around us and we're right in the mix. We've got four Premiership wins and we're on our way to a survival points target.

"I thought we showed a lot of desire and determination. Our defence was outstanding considering we had a hard game on Monday. We wanted to win the game, we worked exceptionally hard."

Brain pin-pointed Worcester's de-fence in the final moments of the first-half following Tim Collier's 39th minute yellow card.

Irish laid siege to the Worcester line after the lock was sin-binned but they eventually held out through stubborn defence.

It gave Worcester a vital 11-3 half-time lead and the Irish could only add another penalty in the second half.

"I think that was a crucial period," added Brain.

"Tim Collier was rightly sent to the sin-bin and London Irish needed to score then. They didn't do that and it proved to be a turning point in the game.

"I thought, though, we had chances to put the game beyond their reach in the second-half. We didn't take them but we did manage to run the clock down and get the victory."

Brain was particularly pleased with his scrum-half Matt Powell who inspired Worcester to victory.

"Matt Powell was, by quite some distance, our man of the match," he said.

"He played very well, controlled the game well and kept the team going forward. He was dangerous on the break so, overall, it was a very, very good performance from him."

Fellow half-back James Brown was missing for the game despite being named in the team before kick-off. And Brain revealed why the former London Irish man couldn't start.

"James Brown had, what the medics call, a 'concussive incident' during our game at Leicester on Monday," he said.

"He had some symptoms of concussion without being knocked out. Ethically, we're not going to play him unless he passes a test. That test has been done but the results come back to us via e-mail.

"We could have got those results before kick-off and we delayed excluding him from the squad until the last possible minute. Without a positive test to say he was OK, we weren't going to put him in the 22. All the players were aware of the situation and eventually we went with Tommy Hayes."